- wlug - list.wlug.org.nz

Computer Says You Are A Thief
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 10 Jan '24

10 Jan '24

Been hearing about this on and off for a few years, but it seems things have come to a head with the airing of a four-part documentary series about the massive scandal of the “Horizon” financial software used by the British Post Office <https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/1/9/the-great-british-post-office-scand…>. Basically, the buggy software was reporting incorrect transaction amounts, and these reports were believed over the protestations of the branch managers, leading to several hundred of the latter being prosecuted and convicted of theft and false accounting. In desperation at not being believed, some of them tried to plug the holes with their own money. Some even committed suicide. It took twenty years from the introduction of the system before a court ruled that the fault lay with the software, not with so many innocent people. (Why was the software considered to be above reproach for so long?) Even now, only a small proportion of the false convictions have been overturned. The Post Office CEO at the time has bowed to pressure and returned her CBE award. The software is still in use.

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speed camera with RPi - NZ edition
by Peter Reutemann 10 Jan '24

10 Jan '24

Hi everyone Just stumbled across this news item in one of the reviews for the Raspberry Pi 4 on PBTech's website: https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/119894942/diy-speed-camera-nabs-hoons-near… And, would you believe it, the article even linked the source code: https://github.com/gregtinkers/carspeed.py Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, Hamilton, NZ Mobile +64 22 190 2375 https://www.cs.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Canonical wants better Snap support outside Ubuntu, based on latest hires
by Peter Reutemann 10 Jan '24

10 Jan '24

'Snaps, the self-contained application packages that Ubuntu has long seen as a simpler app store and a potential solution to dependency hell, could be getting better support outside Ubuntu itself, based on one recent hire and potentially more. As spotted by the Phoronix blog, developer Zygmunt Krynicki, who worked at Ubuntu distributor Canonical from 2012 through 2020, posted Friday on Mastodon that he was "returning as a snap developer later this month." His main focus would be "cross-distribution support," Krynicki wrote, and "unlike in the past this will be my full time job. I'm very excited for what is ahead for snaps." He also noted, in a later reply, that he was "not coming back alone." Krynicki, reached Monday on Mastodon, noted that he was at a very early stage in his work. But he intended to look at the state of support across distributions, determine which long-term and short-term work to focus on, and "work on the internals and get things progressively better, even if that is not flashy." That means refactoring some of the code and, "if realistic, change some of the old ideas that I believe hold the project back," Krynicki wrote. The challenge will be finding ways to "experiment with new ideas in ways that allow controlled but more rapid progress," while maintaining stability. But all of that needs discussing with his team, when they're fully in place, Krynicki wrote. That team and their work would indicate that the Ubuntu makers have listened to perhaps the most common criticism of Snaps, whether perceptual, logistical, or both: that Snaps are an Ubuntu-focused phenomenon. Snap packages have difficulty working without AppArmor, a kernel extension that is a default in Ubuntu but not every other Linux distribution. Canonical also maintains the Snap Store. While other stores of Snaps are possible, some distributions and software packagers have turned instead to Flatpak, a similarly containerized system that doesn't have deep ties to any one distribution.' -- source: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/01/canonical-wants-better-snap-support… Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, Hamilton, NZ Mobile +64 22 190 2375 https://www.cs.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Linus Torvalds Discusses Maintainers, AI, and Rust in the Kernel
by Peter Reutemann 08 Jan '24

08 Jan '24

'ZDNet reports that "At the Linux Foundation's Open Source Summit Japan, Linus Torvalds and his good friend Dirk Hohndel, the head of Verizon open source, talked about the current state of Linux: Speaking of maintainers, Hohndel brought up the question of "maintainer fatigue and how draining and stressful this role is...." Torvalds replied, "It's much easier to find developers; we have a lot of developers. Some people think that you have to be a superdeveloper who can do everything to be a maintainer, but that's not actually true...." Hohndel commented that the aging of the kernel community is a "double-edged sword." Torvalds agreed, but he noted that "one of the things I liked about the Rust side of the kernel, was that there was one maintainer who was clearly much younger than most of the maintainers. We can clearly see that certain areas in the kernel bring in more young people...." Hohndel and Torvalds also talked about the use of the Rust language in the Linux kernel. Torvalds said, "It's been growing, but we don't have any part of the kernel that really depends on Rust yet. To me, Rust was one of those things that made technical sense, but to me personally, even more important was that we need to not stagnate as a kernel and as developers." That said, Torvalds continued, "Rust has not really shown itself as the next great big thing. But I think during next year, we'll actually be starting to integrate drivers and some even major subsystems that are starting to use it actively. So it's one of those things that is going to take years before it's a big part of the kernel. But it's certainly shaping up to be one of those." Torvalds also said he enjoyed the fact that open source "has become the standard within the industry." But later Hohndel, calling AI "autocorrect on steroids," asked Torvalds if he thought he'd ever see submissions of LLM-written code. "I'm convinced it's gonna happen. And it may well be happening already, maybe on a smaller scale where people use it more to help write code." But, unlike many people, Torvalds isn't too worried about AI. "It's clearly something where automation has always helped people write code. This is not anything new at all...." But, "What about hallucinations?," asked Hohndel. Torvalds, who will never stop being a little snarky, said, "I see the bugs that happen without AI every day. So that's why I'm not so worried. I think we're doing just fine at making mistakes on our own." ' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/23/12/09/0644247 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, Hamilton, NZ Mobile +64 22 190 2375 https://www.cs.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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How Does FreeBSD Compare to Linux on a Raspberry Pi?
by Peter Reutemann 08 Jan '24

08 Jan '24

'Klaus Zimmermann (a self-described "friendly hacker") recently posted a "State of the Distro" post, choosing his favorite distributions for things like portable installation from a USB drive (Alpine Linux) and for a desktop OS (Debian Linux or Devuan). But when it comes to a distro for the Raspberry Pi, (at least until the 4), Zimmerman argues that FreeBSD's performance is "unlike any other Linux distribution I've ever seen, even with cpupower activated and overclocking." Nope, no match — FreeBSD's performance on the Pi is still way better, even without overclocking. You can browse a modern web, have things scroll smoothly, watch videos and even play some 3D games like Quake with it! And if you overclock it a little (2GHz) you can even make it run that gargantua MS Teams. But what about all that lackluster driver support? WiFi drivers still on the 802.11g standard and all? Surely you can't be serious about it when Linux offers all that support out of the box, right? Wrong, actually. For starters, the drivers provided for the Pi's hardware are often half-assed proprietary blobs... I no longer think FreeBSD is really at fault if the driver support for the hardware is not helpful to begin with. Even drivers you find for Linux are shaky at best. So yes, I will keep using FreeBSD on the Pi. As a desktop. With USB WiFi and audio adapters for those services, because the existing hardware is sort of moot even otherwise. And with those USB adapters — and FreeBSD — the Pi works really well, truly desktop-like. I'd be curious to hear from Slashdot's readers about their own experiments with Linux (and FreeBSD) on a Raspberry Pi. Zimmerman's final winner, for the "Server" category, was Debian — though of his two servers, one is just an XMPP server set up on a Raspberry Pi. "I found that using Debian on the Pi is a real joy. Easy and simple to set up, familiar environment and all. So I'm keeping it. "This concept is about to be overshadowed, however, by my growing like of FreeBSD lately..."' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/24/01/07/0327229 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, Hamilton, NZ Mobile +64 22 190 2375 https://www.cs.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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ZDNet Calls Rhino Linux 'New Coolest Linux Distro'
by Peter Reutemann 08 Jan '24

08 Jan '24

'If you're starting the new year with a new Linux distro, ZDNet just ran an enthusiastic profile of Rhino Linux, calling it "beautiful" with "one of the more useful command-line package managers on the market." Rhino uses a modern take on the highly efficient and customizable Xfce desktop (dubbed "Unicorn") to help make the interface immediately familiar to anyone who logs in. You'll find a dock on the left edge of the screen that contains launchers for common applications, access to the Application Grid (where you can find all of your installed software), and a handy Search Bar (Ulauncher) that allows you to quickly search for and launch any installed app (or even the app settings) you need... Thanks to myriad configuration options, Xfce can be a bit daunting. At the same time, the array of settings makes Xfce highly customizable, which is exactly what the Rhino developers did when they designed this desktop. For those who want a desktop that makes short work of accessing files, the Rhino developers have added a really nifty tool to the top bar. You'll find a listing of some folders you have in your Home directory (Files, Documents, Music, Pictures, Video). If you click on one of those entries, you'll see a list of the most recently accessed files within the directory. Click on the file you want to open with the default, associated application... Rhino opts for the Pacstall package manager over the traditional apt-get. That's not to say apt-get isn't on the system — it is. But with Rhino Linux, there's a much easier path to getting the software you want installed... [W]hen you first run the installed OS, you are greeted with a window that allows you to select what package managers you want to use. You can select from Snap, Flatpak, and AppImages (or all three). Next, the developers added a handy tool (rhino-pkg) that makes installing from the command line very simple. When the distro launched in August, 9to5Linux described it as "a unique distribution for Ubuntu fans who wanted a rolling-release system where they install once and receive updates forever." The theming looks gorgeous and it's provided by the Elementary Xfce Darker icon theme, Xubuntu's Greybird GTK theme, and Ubuntu's Yaru Dark WM theme. It also comes with some cool features, such as a dedicated and full-screen desktop switcher provided by Xfdashboard... ' -- source: https://news.slashdot.org/story/24/01/07/2036245 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, Hamilton, NZ Mobile +64 22 190 2375 https://www.cs.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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RIP: Software Design Pioneer And Pascal Creator Niklaus Wirth
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 06 Jan '24

06 Jan '24

Famed computer scientist Niklaus Wirth has passed away, just a few weeks before reaching his 90th birthday <https://www.theregister.com/2024/01/04/niklaus_wirth_obituary/>. He is known for being a champion of simplicity in programming language and system design. He had a falling out with the committee that was coming up with a successor to Algol-60 (itself a driver for many important language-implementation techniques), and so went off and created Pascal. And then a few more languages after that. In his criticism of the language, Algol-68, that the committee eventually came up with, I found this excerpt illuminating on the milieu of the time: I am discouraged! I thought I had recognized the short-comings of the commercially available languages; they provide no guidance to programming discipline, and lack a logically coherent structure. Algol 60 had provided an answer and a solution. Unfortunately, it lacked some features which many practitioners badly need. It was relatively easy to remedy some defects and some defaults of Algol 60. We had implemented such an extension of Algol; it contains the data types long real, complex, and character strings, along with one other major extension. But guess how many requests we received for this system. None! Nobody is interested in a new language, particuarly if it is not supported by the big manufacturers or has received the blessing of some standards committee. But I see no chances that either a big manufacturer or a committee will ever produce a language acceptable to our standards or clarity, simplicity, and rigor. Remember, this was published in November 1968. Notice the assumption that the only sort of language implementation that might be worth using is a “commercially-available” one, with the backing of a “big” company behind it. There was no thought that an implementation with source code freely available could ever be considered “commercial”, either in usage or quality. And on top of that, every OS was different; there was nothing like the near-universality of POSIX-type OSes we enjoy today. And some of the differences were downright--quirky, shall we say. So even if such a source code project were available, porting it to all the platforms in common use would likely have been a nightmare.

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Since the Demise of Atom, 'Pulsar' Offers an Alternative Code Editor
by Peter Reutemann 01 Jan '24

01 Jan '24

'On December 15 GitHub declared end-of-life for its "hackable text editor" Atom. But Long-time Slashdot reader BrendaEM wants to remind everyone that after the announcement of Atom's sunset, "the community came together to keep Atom alive." First there was the longstanding fork Atom-Community. But "due to differences in long-term goals for the editor, a new version was born: Pulsar." >From the Pulsar web site: Pulsar [sometimes referred to as Pulsar-Edit] aims to not only reach feature parity with the original Atom, but to bring Pulsar into the 21st century by updating the underlying architecture, and supporting modern features. With many new features on the roadmap, once Pulsar is stable, it will be a true, Community-Based, Hackable, Text Editor. "Of course, the user interface is much of the same," writes the blog Its FOSS, and it's cross-platform (supporting Linux, macOS, and Windows). "The essentials seem to be there with the documentation, packages, and features like the ability to install packages from Git repositories..."' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/24/01/01/016215 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, Hamilton, NZ Mobile +64 22 190 2375 https://www.cs.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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How a Cray-1 Supercomputer Compares to a Raspberry Pi
by Peter Reutemann 01 Jan '24

01 Jan '24

'Roy Longbottom worked for the U.K. covernment's Central Computer Agency from 1960 to 1993, and "from 1972 to 2022 I produced and ran computer benchmarking and stress testing programs..." Known as the official design authority for the Whetstone benchmark), Longbottom writes that "In 2019 (aged 84), I was recruited as a voluntary member of Raspberry Pi pre-release Alpha testing team." And this week — now at age 87 — Longbottom has created a web page titled "Cray 1 supercomputer performance comparisons with home computers, phones and tablets." And one statistic really captures the impact of our decades of technological progress. "In 1978, the Cray 1 supercomputer cost $7 Million, weighed 10,500 pounds and had a 115 kilowatt power supply. It was, by far, the fastest computer in the world. The Raspberry Pi costs around $70 (CPU board, case, power supply, SD card), weighs a few ounces, uses a 5 watt power supply and is more than 4.5 times faster than the Cray 1." ' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/23/12/31/0017205 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, Hamilton, NZ Mobile +64 22 190 2375 https://www.cs.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Source-Based Gentoo Linux Goes Binary
by Peter Reutemann 01 Jan '24

01 Jan '24

'While Gentoo Linux is best-known as source-based Linux distribution, "our package manager, Portage, already for years also has support for binary packages," according to its web page. It notes that source- and binary-based package installations can be freely mixed. But now... To speed up working with slow hardware and for overall convenience, we're now also offering binary packages for download and direct installation! For most architectures, this is limited to the core system and weekly updates — not so for amd64 and arm64 however. There we've got a stunning >20 GByte of packages on our mirrors, from LibreOffice to KDE Plasma and from Gnome to Docker. Gentoo stable, updated daily. Enjoy! "We have a rather neat binary package guide on our Wiki that goes into much more detail..." the announcement points out. The packages are cryptographically signed with the same key as the stages.' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/23/12/30/1756208 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, Hamilton, NZ Mobile +64 22 190 2375 https://www.cs.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Peppermint OS Builds Single-Site Browsers for Debian Systems
by Peter Reutemann 31 Dec '23

31 Dec '23

'They create a dedicated desktop icon for your favorite web-based application — a simplified browser that opens to that single URL. Yet while Linux usually offers the same functionality as other operating systems, "Peppermint OS's Ice and its successor Kumo are the only free software versions of Site-Specific Browsers available on Linux," according to Linux magazine. "Fortunately for those who want this functionality, Peppermint OS is a Debian derivative, and both can be installed on Debian and most other derivatives." Since SSBs first appeared in 2005, they have been available on both Windows and macOS. On Linux, however, the availability has come and gone. On Linux, Firefox once had an SSB mode, but it was discontinued in 2020 on the grounds that it had multiple bugs that were time-consuming to fix and there was "little to no perceived user benefit to the feature." Similarly, Chromium once had a basic SSB menu item, Create Application Shortcut, which no longer appears in recent versions. As for GNOME Web's (Epiphany's) Install Site as Web Application, while it still appears in the menu, it is no longer functional. Today, Linux users who want to try SSBs have no choices except Ice or Kumo. Neither Ice or Kumo appears in any repository except Peppermint OS's. But because Peppermint OS installs packages from Debian 12 ("bookworm"), either can be installed to Debian or a derivative... To install successfully, at least one of Firefox, Chrome, Chromium, or Vivaldi also must be installed... Because both Ice and Kumo are written in Python, they can be run on any desktop. The article concludes that Site-Specific Browsers might make more sense "on a network or in a business where their isolation provides another layer of security. Or perhaps the time for SSBs is past and there's a reason browsers have tried to implement them, and then discarded them."' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/23/12/30/0527205 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, Hamilton, NZ Mobile +64 22 190 2375 https://www.cs.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Firefox: scrollbar buttons gone
by Peter Reutemann 30 Dec '23

30 Dec '23

Hi everyone Call me old-fashioned, but I do like the arrow buttons on scrollbars. Especially on very long pages (eg OpenWRT's hardware table) where I want move the view port only a little bit... On my Linux 20.3 MATE, I managed to get them back by using these CSS settings: scrollbar { -GtkScrollbar-has-backward-stepper: true; -GtkScrollbar-has-forward-stepper: true; } In the following config file: ~/.config/gtk-3.0/gtk.css -- source: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1420887 Also, if you don't like the thin overlay scrollbars, then set the following FF option ("about:config") to "false": widget.gtk.overlay-scrollbars.enabled Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, Hamilton, NZ Mobile +64 22 190 2375 https://www.cs.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Open Adventure (Latest Reboot Of An Ancient Classic)
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 23 Dec '23

23 Dec '23

Just doing some random browsing on my system, and came across a Debian package called “open-adventure”. Finding my way to its home page at Eric Raymond’s site <http://www.catb.org/~esr/open-adventure/>, I discover that it is a project to modernize the source code for the original “ADVENT” game dating from 1976-1977, the one that originated the whole concept of text-based adventure games. The original code was written in Fortran; this one rewrites it all in clean, almost-idiomatic C (as opposed to automatically-translated GOTO-ridden C), and incorporates such innovations as using YAML as the source code for the maze format (translated to C structures at build time). It has been carefully regression-tested against the Fortran original(s) to ensure the gameplay is identical (and the few conscious deviations can be disabled if you want). The developers also kept in mind the possibility of porting the code further, to more modern languages like Python or Go. In the meantime, they have declared the project “finished” as of earlier this year, with all known bug reports closed and all compatibility tests passed.

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LMDE
by john 21 Dec '23

21 Dec '23

After enduring a few minor health issues over the past months I have finally got round to installing Linux Mint Debian edition 5 Bullseye. I think due to the Cinnamon Desktop environment it is marginally slower than the Mate DE I was using with my Ubuntu Jammy Jellyfish distribution. I didn't find the minor difference to be any problem for me. I am well pleased with the performance, look and feel of it and have not (so far) found anything unpleasant or difficult. It appears to me to be well suited to a first time user or for someone migrating from Windows. Cheers John..

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Fedora Asahi Remix Officially Released For Apple Silicon Macs
by Peter Reutemann 21 Dec '23

21 Dec '23

'9to5Linux: Announced in early August and initially planned for the end of the month, the Fedora Asahi Remix distribution is finally here for those who want to install the Fedora Linux operating system on their Apple Silicon Macs. Previously a remix of Arch Linux ARM, the Fedora Asahi Remix distribution is the result of a multi-year collaboration between the Asahi Linux project and the Fedora Project, enabling you to have a proper daily driver on your Apple Silicon Mac thanks to Fedora Linux's excellent 64-bit ARM support. The distro is based on the latest Fedora Linux 39 release and ships with the KDE Plasma 5.27 LTS desktop environment by default, using Wayland. This promises a smooth Linux desktop experience on Apple hardware similar to macOS. Fedora Asahi Remix also comes with XWayland for those who want to run X11 apps. In addition, it features non-conformant OpenGL 3.3 support including GPU-accelerated geometry shaders and transform feedback, PipeWire by default with WirePlumber, as well as the Calamares graphical installer. ' -- source: https://apple.slashdot.org/story/23/12/20/0357233 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, Hamilton, NZ Mobile +64 22 190 2375 https://www.cs.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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SSH protects the world’s most sensitive networks. It just got a lot weaker
by Peter Reutemann 20 Dec '23

20 Dec '23

'Named Terrapin, the new hack works only when an attacker has an active adversary-in-the middle position on the connection between the admins and the network they remotely connect to. Also known as a man-in-the-middle or MitM attack, this occurs when an attacker secretly positioned between two parties intercepts communications and assumes the identity of both the recipient and the sender. This provides the ability to both intercept and to alter communications. While this position can be difficult for an attacker to achieve, it’s one of the scenarios from which SSH was thought to have immunity. For Terrapin to be viable, the connection it interferes with also must be secured by either "ChaCha20-Poly1305" or "CBC with Encrypt-then-MAC," both of which are cipher modes added to the SSH protocol (in 2013 and 2012, respectively). A scan performed by the researchers found that 77 percent of SSH servers exposed to the Internet support at least one of the vulnerable encryption modes, while 57 percent of them list a vulnerable encryption mode as the preferred choice. At its core, Terrapin works by altering or corrupting information transmitted in the SSH data stream during the handshake—the earliest stage of a connection, when the two parties negotiate the encryption parameters they will use to establish a secure connection. The attack targets the BPP, short for Binary Packet Protocol, which is designed to ensure that adversaries with an active position can't add or drop messages exchanged during the handshake. Terrapin relies on prefix truncation, a class of attack that removes specific messages at the very beginning of a data stream.' -- source: https://arstechnica.com/security/2023/12/hackers-can-break-ssh-channel-inte… This SUSE knowledge base entry lists some configuration changes that one can apply (section "Additional Information"): https://www.suse.com/de-de/support/kb/doc/?id=000021295 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, Hamilton, NZ Mobile +64 22 190 2375 https://www.cs.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Firefox 121 Now Available With Wayland Enabled By Default
by Peter Reutemann 19 Dec '23

19 Dec '23

'Firefox 121 has arrived with Wayland support to be used by default on modern Linux desktops. Phoronix's Michael Larabel writes: Some Linux distributions and package builds have been using the native Wayland path for a while but now it's great to see the upstream builds make this default change as we get ready to embark on the 2024 Linux desktop. With my testing of Firefox 121 on Wayland, it's been working out well. X.Org/X11 support remains in place for those not using a Wayland-based desktop environment. Firefox 121 also adds Voice Control command support on macOS, adds an option to always force-underline links within websites, Firefox now includes a floating button to help in creation within PDFs, various CSS feature additions, and other developer enhancements. Firefox 121 also now supports tail call elimination in WebAssembly for enhancing support for functional languages. ' -- source: https://news.slashdot.org/story/23/12/18/2359227 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, Hamilton, NZ Mobile +64 22 190 2375 https://www.cs.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Microsoft Previews Linux-Powered Windows AI Studio
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 18 Dec '23

18 Dec '23

Microsoft is offering a preview version of “Windows AI Studio”, which lets you run a fixed (for now) set of pre-trained models within Visual Studio Code on Windows. However, your Windows installation must also have Ubuntu installed under WSL2 for this to work <https://www.theregister.com/2023/12/14/windows_ai_studio_preview/>. Quote: There is, however, a certain ironic deliciousness in noting that Microsoft's local AI development on Windows requires Linux under the hood. Windows is still needed for the Visual Studio Code extension, but even that might change. Microsoft said: "We are currently planning for other platform support." When I first heard about WSL2, I predicted that Microsoft would, not from any conscious plan but simply from following the path of least resistance (and cost), start to rely on the Linux kernel more and more for important Windows functionality. I think this represents a step along that path.

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Microsoft Division Will Not Use Microsoft’s Own Cloud
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 15 Dec '23

15 Dec '23

LinkedIn (which is owned by Microsoft) has decided it will not be moving its datacentre operations onto Microsoft Azure after all <https://www.theregister.com/2023/12/14/linkedin_abandons_migration_to_micro…>. The plan was originally announced four years ago. Then last year they decided to back off a bit, and go for a “hybrid cloud” model. And now, the whole cloud part is gone. Seems they were not going for a refactor of their services to take advantage of cloud-native functionality, instead they were trying to “lift and shift” their existing software. This could be a reflection on the inflexibility of Azure, or on the difficulty of maintenance of that existing LinkedIn infrastructure. Either way, it does not exactly make Microsoft look good. Not to mention the four years it took to realize the whole project was a waste of time.

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Proton Mail Finally Gets a Desktop App For Encrypted Email and Calendar
by Peter Reutemann 15 Dec '23

15 Dec '23

'The Verge: Proton has released a desktop version of its Proton Mail app that will give users full access to both Proton Mail and Proton Calendar and (eventually) the ability to view your emails offline. The desktop app is available in beta is optimized for both Windows and macOS, and encrypts sent emails end-to-end just like with the browser version, according to the Swiss company, while offline access to emails will be available "soon." [...] It's important to note that you'll still need internet access to both send and encrypt your emails on Proton. But the offline feature will let you view and draft emails while traveling, during a power outage, or any other situation where you don't have access to the internet. Proton is also bringing encrypted auto-forwarding to paid users, both on its desktop and browser versions, though the encryption for forwards will only apply when the forwarded emails go to other Proton users. The company says it has made improvements to Proton Calendar, too, including a fully searchable web version. Not everyone will be able to access Proton's desktop app right away. Proton is restricting access to its paid "Visionary" tier for legacy users at first (though the company is reopening subscriptions to that tier through January 3rd, 2024). The plan is to make the desktop app available to all users in early 2024. ' -- source: https://it.slashdot.org/story/23/12/14/1916258 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, Hamilton, NZ Mobile +64 22 190 2375 https://www.cs.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Not Being Swayed to Write in Rust (Yet)
by Ben Cottrell 13 Dec '23

13 Dec '23

I've enjoyed learning how to make performant software, and I've been led to some fantastic toolkits for C++. Some of my favourites include Qt and Boost. Unfortunately, it seems like no amount of pointer container classes, design patterns or static checkers are going to make modern C++ any safer. I don't want to abandon the ship and shift to a garbage collected languages, although they do come in handy, especially Java, as I've used it with ANTLR for testing grammars. These frameworks seem to complement each other nicely, and some scripting in JavaScript is handy for wrangling data as well. I find Rust cumbersome, with regards to naming styles, and error handling. I like the conveniences of the package and toolchain management rolled with Rust, but they aren't enough to sway me from C++. I would like something like the borrow checker being available in C++, and say, MSVC or GCC having more user-friendly compiler error messages. Maybe C++ is too slow to adapt, and Rust will take its place, if comparable frameworks become more popular. Competition is good for innovation anyway. Regards, Ben

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'Lenovo B41-30 80LF' Laptop. WiFi not werking. Hardware flt.
by B. Eagle Burt 13 Dec '23

13 Dec '23

I am currently running Devuan Linux OS. The cable/eth0 connection WAS UP & RUNNINNING UNTIL MY INCESSESSANT FIDDLING AROUND WITH Network Manager Screwed that up too ... :-(( I have tried ALL the various Commands/Options of 'nmcli' & found that the WiFi Hardware Device/wlan0 was missing. I have searched & searched Lenovo websites to no avail. I have also spoken with a Lenovo support (NZ) technician who did not exactly inspire confidence. It was his suggestion for me to contact the WLUG. I WAS going to purchase a WiFi Adapter (onboard) from Trademe, but he thought that a PCI MINI card would be too small for this model of Laptop. The Lenovo site does not have any WiFi Adapters for sale. A friend suggested that I purchase a USB WiFi Adapter, which I did - 'tp-link AC600 Nano Wireless USB Adapter' BUT I discovered that there is not a Linux driver for it yet... so THAT was a waste of $40-odd. Anyone with a cheap old PCI WiFi or USB WiFi Adapter Driver for Linux or Any advice welcomed. Thank you for your consideration of this, my first, WLUG List Post. 'b'ye! - B. Gilbert

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Stealthy Linux rootkit found in the wild after going undetected for 2 years
by Peter Reutemann 11 Dec '23

11 Dec '23

'Stealthy and multifunctional Linux malware that has been infecting telecommunications companies went largely unnoticed for two years until being documented for the first time by researchers on Thursday. Researchers from security firm Group-IB have named the remote access trojan “Krasue,” after a nocturnal spirit depicted in Southeast Asian folklore “floating in mid-air, with no torso, just her intestines hanging from below her chin.” The researchers chose the name because evidence to date shows it almost exclusively targets victims in Thailand and “poses a severe risk to critical systems and sensitive data given that it is able to grant attackers remote access to the targeted network. According to the researchers: - Krasue is a Linux Remote Access Trojan that has been active since 20 and predominantly targets organizations in Thailand. - Group-IB can confirm that telecommunications companies were targeted by Krasue. - The malware contains several embedded rootkits to support different Linux kernel versions. - Krasue’s rootkit is drawn from public sources (3 open-source Linux Kernel Module rootkits), as is the case with many Linux rootkits. - The rootkit can hook the `kill()` syscall, network-related functions, and file listing operations in order to hide its activities and evade detection. - Notably, Krasue uses RTSP (Real-Time Streaming Protocol) messages to serve as a disguised “alive ping,” a tactic rarely seen in the wild. - This Linux malware, Group-IB researchers presume, is deployed during the later stages of an attack chain in order to maintain access to a victim host. - Krasue is likely to either be deployed as part of a botnet or sold by initial access brokers to other cybercriminals. - Group-IB researchers believe that Krasue was created by the same author as the XorDdos Linux Trojan, documented by Microsoft in a March 2022 blog post, or someone who had access to the latter’s source code.' -- source: https://arstechnica.com/security/2023/12/stealthy-linux-rootkit-found-in-th… Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, Hamilton, NZ Mobile +64 22 190 2375 https://www.cs.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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How AlmaLinux's Community Supported RHEL Binary Compatibility
by Peter Reutemann 10 Dec '23

10 Dec '23

'Linux magazine interviewed an AlmaLinux official about what happened after their distro pivoted to binary compatibility with Red Hat Enterprise Linux rather than being a downstream build: Linux Magazine: What prompted AlmaLinux to choose ABI over 1:1 compatibility with RHEL? benny Vasquez, chair of the AlmaLinux OS Foundation: The short answer is our users. Overwhelmingly, our users made it clear that they chose AlmaLinux for its ease of use, the security and stability that it provides, and the backing of a diverse group of sponsors. All of that together meant that we didn't need to lock ourselves into copying RHEL, and we could continue to provide what our users needed. Moreover, we needed to consider what our sponsors would be able to help us provide, and how we could best serve the downstream projects that now rely on AlmaLinux. The rippling effects of any decision that we make are beyond measure at this point, so we consider all aspects of our impact and then move forward with confidence and intention. LM: How did AlmaLinux's mission of improving the Linux ecosystem for everyone influence this decision? bV: We strongly believe that the soul of open source means working together, providing value where there is a gap, and helping each other solve problems. If we participate in an emotional reaction to a business's change, we will then be distracted and potentially hurt users and the Enterprise Linux ecosystem overall. By remaining focused on what is best (though not easiest), and adapting to the ecosystem as it is today, we will provide a better and more stable operating system. LM: What opportunities does the ABI route offer over 1:1 compatibility? bV: By liberating ourselves from the 1:1 promise, we have been able to do a few small things that have proven to be a good testing ground for what will come in the future. Specifically, we shipped a couple of smallish, but extremely important, security patches ahead of Red Hat, offering quicker security to the users of AlmaLinux... This also opens the door for other features and improvements that we could add back in or change, as our users need. We have already seen greater community involvement, especially around these ideas. LM: Does the ABI route pose any extra challenges? bV: The obvious one is that building from CentOS Stream sources takes more effort, but I think the more important challenge (and the one that will only be solved with consistency over time) is the one of proving that we will be able to deliver on the promise... We will continue on our goal of becoming the home for all users that need Enterprise Linux for free, but in the next year I expect that we will see an expansion in the number of kernels we support and see some new and exciting SIGs spun up around other features or use cases, as the community continues to standardize on how to achieve their goals collectively. Linux magazine notes that in August AlmaLinux added two new repositories, Testing and Synergy. "Testing, currently available for AlmaLinux 8 and 9, offers security updates before they are approved and implemented upstream. Synergy contains packages requested by community members that currently aren't available in RHEL or Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux (EPEL, a set of extra software packages maintained by the Fedora SIG that are not available in RHEL or CentOS Stream)." The article also points out that "On the upside, AlmaLinux can now include comments in their patches for greater transparency. Users will see where the patch comes from, which was not an option before." Vasquez tells the magazine, "I think folks will be seriously happy about what they find as we release the new versions, namely, the consistency, stability, and security that they've come to expect from us."' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/23/12/09/2121242 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, Hamilton, NZ Mobile +64 22 190 2375 https://www.cs.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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ext4 corruption bug in Linux kernel 6.1.64-1
by Eliot Blennerhassett 10 Dec '23

10 Dec '23

(I haven't read the details yet, but worth being cautious...) ext4 corruption bug in Linux kernel 6.1.64-1 that was in last night's debian point release Avoid booting into 6.1.64-1, if you have already done so the suggestion is to boot to a previous kernel, 6.1.55-1 or earlier debian 12.3 release has been delayed. Thanks to those who are working to update the kernel for the release! Bug report - https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=1057843 "IMPORTANT: do NOT upgrade to new stable point release" on debian-user mailing list (Received via mastodon https://floss.social/@FLOX_advocate/111552470597771898) -- Eliot

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